The Womxn Project launches the Barbara Colt Perseverance Awards
Barbara Colt was part of the old guard of reproductive rights, working tirelessly to ensure that anyone who needed reproductive healthcare and abortion had both the right and the real access to get it
“Many of you know that 2025 marked the passing of Barbara Colt, an icon of Rhode Island activism for more than 50 years,” said Jocelyn Foye, Executive Director of The Womxn Project (TWP) and The Womxn Project Education Fund (TWPEF). “For us at The Womn Project, Barbara was part of the old guard of reproductive rights - working tirelessly to ensure that anyone who needed reproductive healthcare and abortion had both the right and the real access to get it. At TWP, she was a board member superhero, an active participant, a loyal supporter, and a treasured community member. She was a counselor, a colleague, and a co-conspirator. She is deeply missed.”
Foye was speaking in the Rhode Island State House Library to a room packed with TWP members, supporters, and allies. It was the first day of a new session of the General Assembly, and the State House was already buzzing with activity at the start of what is expected to be a challenging legislative year.
“Our boards at TWP and TWPEF created this award to honor Barbara and to recognize those who follow the path she helped clear in Rhode Island,” continued Foye. “While Barbara’s work extended far beyond reproductive rights and even beyond healthcare, we chose to focus this award on healthcare because she pushed us to broaden our fight into LGBTQ+ rights and healthcare access under our shared rubric of bodily freedom.”
The two inaugural individual Barbara Colt Perseverance Awards were presented to Karen Malcolm, most recently the coordinator of the Protect Our Healthcare Coalition, and Carmen Cabotte, a mental health specialist at Butler Hospital.
Karen Malcolm
“Karen Malcolm organized and led coalition efforts that effectively advanced and defended healthcare access in Rhode Island, helping to expand coverage, protect vital services, and keep people at the center of policy,” said Foye.
“As a teenager, she was part of a group of students that formed to support striking teachers. Professionally, in the early 1990s, she was part of an SEIU organizing drive to organize clerical staff at Brown University, and later went to work at the Institute for Labor Studies and Research, where she worked with women leaders in Rhode Island’s labor movement to establish the Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD), to train more women as labor leaders. After that, Karen served as Director of Agency Services and Community Outreach at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, with a focus on economic justice and anti-hunger policy advocacy.”
Carmen Cadotte
“Carmen Cadotte’s journey at Butler Hospital began in a deeply personal way,” said Foye. “After Butler helped save her life, she made the powerful decision to give back by becoming a mental health worker there. As a proud Latina, Carmen brought a deep sense of community, care, resilience, and responsibility for one another that has long defined so many of our families.
“For more than 30 years, she has dedicated her career to caring for people during their most vulnerable moments, often serving patients who share her language, culture, and lived experience,” continued Foye. “Her presence has meant trust, dignity, and understanding for countless families navigating mental health care.”
Clínica Esperanza
“The inaugural organizational award goes to Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic, represented by Morgan Leonard, the Executive Director,” said Foye. “Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic was founded by volunteer doctors, nurse practitioners, and pharmacists who believed that high-quality health care should be accessible to everyone, regardless of insurance status.
“From the start, the clinic was intentionally built to be culturally competent and linguistically appropriate, with evening and weekend hours to meet people where they are. At the center of this model are Navegantes, who are community health workers cross-trained as medical interpreters, lifestyle educators, and medical assistants. Because Navegantes come from the same communities they serve, they build trust, bridge cultural and language gaps, and ensure patients truly understand their care. This people-centered approach has been core to their mission from day one.
“The clinic has been here for 19 years, and their focus moving forward is simple and urgent: to remain a trusted place to be healthy for Rhode Island’s uninsured community, especially at a time when misinformation and fear are creating confusion for so many in the communities they serve,” continued Foye. “As the number of uninsured residents is expected to rise, they are working to responsibly increase capacity while preserving the care model that makes their clinic effective.
“This means strengthening systems, supporting staff and volunteers, and staying closely connected with patients, partners, and donors. Clínica Esperanza is preparing for growth not by losing their values, but by doubling down on them: ensuring that trust, clarity, and compassion remain at the center of everything they do.”
The ceremony continued with a performance by the Raging Grannies. Here’s the video:
“The Woman Project is committed to carrying Barbara’s work forward in Rhode Island and deep collaboration with partners across our communities,” said Foye. “We’re thankful for the many relationships we’ve built in this room and for the ones we continue to build as we grow. We intend to build an endowment for this award, convene a committee annually, and continue to recognize individuals and organizations who carry on this work in the spirit of Barbara, with passion and compassion, commitment, and purpose, until the day we achieve true equity in Rhode Island. Thank you all for your donations. We’re allocating the funds among three recipients and adding a small amount to this endowment to grow. We also hope that, despite the long odds, Barbara would be proud to know that we’re lifting her up while sharing in that love.”
In honor of Barbara Colt, the ceremony ended with a call to action.
“Barbara would say, ‘So what are we going to do,’ and ‘Let’s get back to work,’” said Foye. “So this session, The Womxn Project and a lot of organizations are going to work together to do what we did in 2017, which was we saw the threat to the right to abortion and we stood up to defend it. We were told by leadership in our state government that the threat was not real. It wasn’t a necessary issue, and we didn’t need to worry about it, but we are worried, and we will continue to fight for the rights, so this year we hope you join us in working towards protecting our vote, our civil rights, and we hope that you will join us.”
